September 11, 2001 was 23 years ago, yet today, there are still bitching about what, even to this day, is referred to as “9/11.” I remember exactly where I was that day. I was in charge of a small television station in Ohio and the office and the actual broadcast facility were on opposite sides of town.
I remember coming into the office to pick up mail, paperwork and 3/4″ tape (yes, that was a thing back then!). Everyone had their eyes glued on the television in the conference room.
There it was, a big gap in one of the World Trade Center towers. At the time, everyone, including myself, shrugged it off as pilot error.
The receptionist said, in regards to the pilot, “Idiot!” Everyone walked away because we thought that was that. When I was driving to the broadcast facility, which housed vacant offices, the master control room and the transmitter, my cell phone blew up. The owner meant to grab me before I left. He said, “I don’t know what’s going on, but the station is entirely in your hands!”
I didn’t even have time to set the phone back down when it rang again. One of our news providers was calling to see if I could take a special report. The second tower had just been hit and this was no longer a tale about a errant and incompetent pilot. Our nation was under attack, thus sayeth the DJ who broke into the music on my favorite radio station. What a pussy!
I told him that I was on the way and that as soon as I got there, I’d take their report. When I got to the station, I broke into the overnight programming and took their report already in progress. Of course, I stayed with that programming until that network ended their coverage. I then switched over to CNN for the rest of the day as we subscribed to them at the time.
We stayed in news programming until Wednesday morning, at which point I made the decision to go to our overnight provider, who had just resumed broadcasting. We aired obsolete programming, including a movie. Of course, we got angry phone calls from viewers.
I continued to cease airing local commercials as that would anger viewers even further and it would anger and cause problems for advertisers. But it was time to provide programming for those who were tired and upset by the continuing coverage. Every other employee was angry with me, but the owner backed me up.
Things really started getting back to somewhat normal on Thursday, when I resumed regular programming and local commercials. But things were far from completely normal.
For example, many of our programming providers sent their shows on physical tape. Due to the grounding of all planes under Operation Yellow Ribbon, there was no way to get the tapes to television stations. So providers had to either book last-minute satellite time or call me and tell me to rerun a prior episode. This wasn’t the case for just my station; every station felt the effects of the unprecedented ground stop to some degree or another.
Anyway, while everything was going on, I wasn’t really paying much attention to the news coverage other than to periodically make sure everything was airing at the correct levels and I had to ensure we broke in every hour to run our FCC-required station identification. No, I swung the other satellite dish around and found programming that I could watch since the master control operators had absolutely nothing to do.
To be honest, I really didn’t care about what was going on. It didn’t affect me in anyway, so I just didn’t give a rat’s ass. I was glad when we could finally resume normal programming.
All of this took place 23 years ago. Obviously, it’s old news. Yet today, people are still screaming, “Never forget!” and what not. It’s disgusting. Look, I don’t feel sorry for anyone who died except for the poor sons of bitches who died in the planes and at the Pentagon.
I feel no sympathy for the people who worked in the WTC towers. They knew exactly what they were getting into given how many floors there were. Evacuations for any reason, especially fires, would wind up in disaster, especially if the elevators were unsafe to use.
I don’t feel sorry for any of them because they chose to work in the towers despite the fact that the WTC had been attacked before. And let’s not forget that a plane plowed into the Empire State Building in 1945. Knowing that disaster would strike again, they chose to work there. That’s why I don’t mourn their deaths. That’s why I find the whole thing amusing. They brought all of that upon themselves. Seriously.
And I’ll tell you something else, albeit something that isn’t directly related: I believe that Osama bin Laden was murdered by our military at the behest of Barack Osama. At the time that bin Laden was shot, he was not an immediate threat. They could have took him alive and made him stand trial. But no, our nation, hungry for petty revenge, carried out what I believe to be a cold-blooded murder.
And what did President Bush and President Osama do? They used our military to carry out what I feel were unjustifiable acts of violence. Our troops were nothing more than pawns in those presidents’ unholy game of revenge chess. Many of our troops died for no reason whatsoever. It was never about defending our country. At that point in history, it was, I feel, bloodlust.
So before you feel sorry for the close to 3,000 so-called “victims,” just remember that they voluntarily worked in a building that would become instantly a death trap if something happened, just as it did in 2001.
It’s time to stop feeling sorry for them and stop crying about it already.
(Photo credit: National Archives, U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Pendergrass. public domain)